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nancy_adamopoulos

New here.. Help w/ cookbook storage

Nancy Adamopoulos
15 years ago

Hi everyone!

I'm new to this forum(usually on Kitchens or Appliances forum) and we just moved into our new house. I'm determined to be organized in this house, so I think I may be spending a lot more time here in the future... My first task is storage for my cookbooks/Yellow pages/ Binder with printed out recipes etc. After unpacking everything in my kitchen after moving... the only place for my books is in the 24" deep 30" wide cabinet above my double ovens. Its a bit higher than I would like , but I can reach the bottom shelf ok. I put the books in there and before long, they fall over and get pushed to the back of the cabinet where I can't reach. Does anyone have any ideas on how to store shallow items in a deep cabinet? The books need to be readily accessible. I don't care if the back part of the shelf doesn't get used....

thanks!

nancy :)

Comments (10)

  • talley_sue_nyc
    15 years ago

    Get some shoeboxes, tape the lids on w/ packing tape, and line them up in a row across the back of that cabinet. Stick them in place w/ Quake Wax or poster putty, if you want.

    Or, you could pick something you want to store there (something seldom used), and put it there--but that could be really annoying when it comes time that you need it.

  • claire_de_luna
    15 years ago

    I keep my cookbooks in my living/dining room; not in the kitchen. I have too many, and I like being able to pull them out and look for what I need without risking getting food on them. I do have a Favorites binder that I keep recipes in that I make all the time (in the kitchen), but it's only one binder so it's not a problem to keep that in the kitchen.

    This is another thing (like the kitchen trash can under the sink) that can easily live elsewhere, if the place you have for it isn't readily accessible.

  • Frankie_in_zone_7
    15 years ago

    See thread on utilizing deep shelves.

    In your case of books, it will be hard to organize a LOT of books in a high deep cabinet, but you could find a basket or bin that holds an amount of books you could heft up and down (basket oriented either sideways or front-to-back, depending on how your cabinet is made (center post or not, etc).
    Or, especially if you have no center post, you could consider devising a bookshelf within the cabinet and store them binder facing out, just like on a shelf. Something like just the right cardboard box on its side, only just book-deep, so the books can't be pushed back, and a flat metal bookend or 2 in between some of them, to keep them from falling over when you pull one out. Then you would have to either just sacrifice the area behind that, or store some rarely used item.

  • kentucky7
    15 years ago

    A friend of mine stored hers on a shelf she mounted over her kitchen doorway. Her house was decorated very homey and cozy and it seemed to fit in her kitchen decor nicely. And it served a great function of storing her cookbooks. Sorry I don't have a picture. I keep my cookcooks in a cabinet over my microwave. Yes, it's a deep cabinet, but my cookbooks stay right in front. Behind them are things that I don't use very often. If I need to reach those things, I have to use a stepstool to reach anyway, so it allows me to reach over the cookbooks. How many cookbooks are you storing?

  • bronwynsmom
    15 years ago

    I keep a lot of cookbooks and magazines, so I bought two tall skinny folding metal bookcases from The Container Store (they're really pretty stylish, and would work really well with a European country or a modern design scheme), set them up in the hall just outside the work area of the kitchen, and put all the books, mags, and binders there, along with my folder of take-out menus, the manuals for the little appliances, and the telephone directories. I need all my cabinet space anyway, so this works very well for me.

  • lilydilly
    15 years ago

    I have a cupboard just like yours above our fridge, where I keep my cook books. Like you, mine kept falling over and slipping to the back of the deep cupboard.
    Finally I stored a box of items which I don't use often, behind the books, to solve the slipping back problem. Even a box of seasonal items, like Xmas decorations would work.
    Then I got two heavy metal book ends from the office supply store, and use these to stop them falling over sideways.
    Another thing I did was reduce my cookbooks drastically. I have some I just love to look through for inspiration, even if I don't follow the recipes, and I won't part with them. But others that were just practical, I actually cut out the recipes I used, and put them into a plastic sleeve binder. Reduced about 8 books to one useful binder, but it seemed like sacrilege at first.
    Another thing I did with some of my favourite craft books was just put them into plastic sturdy magazine holders from the office supply.

  • Nancy Adamopoulos
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    thanks for all the suggestions... I already had a plastic sleeve binder for my most used recipes and anything i printed off the internet. I didn't have too may cookbooks(less than 10) but I was also storing 2 phone books and several binders with all the appliance manuals and new home information organized in them. I ended up purchasing several clear acrylic magazine files(the jumbo ones) from the office supply store and set them side-by side in the front of my cabinet. I used talley_sue's shoebox idea to keep the magazine holders from sliding back. I think eventually i'll have some seldom used object to store back there...

  • talley_sue_nyc
    15 years ago

    I used talley_sue's shoebox idea

    Talley Sue is doing the happy dance! Look, her head is swelling. OMG, it's getting bigger. Wait, that's getting scary, her head is so big! Quick, somebody pop it!

    Yay, lishaana! I hope your new system works for you. Don't be afraid to tweak it if it doesn't.

    (I found that eventually I didn't use the appliance manuals, and I was happy to move them farther from the kitchen.)

  • Cynthia A
    15 years ago

    You can put a 29 3/4" x 1 x 1/2" piece of strip of wood and glued it onto the back of the cabinet space followed by the largest depth of the book to keep them from pushed further back. Hope this helps. :)

  • elizabethzen
    15 years ago

    How about putting a pull down shelf in the cabinet? That would give you easy access to the books when you need them and allow you to have them out of your way when you don't.

    Here is a link with an example - there are probably others available as well.

    Elizabeth

    Here is a link that might be useful: pull down shelf